December 12, 2000

Pause for Celebration

India Today kicked off a 25 in 2000 celebration in Mumbai with imaginative zeal. Saluting the cutting-edge savvy of new-age advertising, they had the Law Minister of India, Mr Arun Jaitley, as chief guest to give away the prizes. But no prizes for guessing the best speech of the evening, our New Age politician gave a brief eloquent speech which praised the young talent and lauded India Today for setting up shop at a time when our nation’s democracy itself was under siege. Then Mohini Bhullar, the elegant matriarch of India Today delivered a short vote of thanks and cooed “Have a blast!” Foot-tapping music and a Nirvanic rub of shoulders ensued as chatterati, glitterati and folk mingled, ate, danced and made merry.

Rekha and Aroon Purie on a flying visit to Mumbai, caught up with old friends and new. The charm of Rekha, to rush after Talat Aziz (having failed to recognise him when introduced,) to tell him she was a fan. Shekhar Suman looked cheeky in a burgundy red suit, while lovely wife Alka looked like a Georgian peach. Rashmi Uday Singh played hostess by ensuring everyone had a glass. Some task that! She carried the evening with an envious social chutzpah. Kali Purie, Koel Purie and Rahul Bose kept the young brigade on toes. There was a keen sense that 25 in 2000 was not just a catchy phrase but a meaningful reaction to the 21st century for a group that has many a ‘first’ to its credit, under the able leadership of Aroon and his talented editor Prabhu Chawla.

India Today, the name itself raises patriotic zealotry to the point of do or die. Now we watch with baited breath the chapter one of the Millennium unfolding. Two score and more to, play on forever. Despite my gentle persuasion to join the Dhow party, the Puries played host with most till I left, they go on to Delhi to top a month-long celebration of 25 in 2000.

Gautam Singhania and Arjun Khanna had a wind, sea and beauty on parade during an evening on board Singhi’s new Dhow. The thrill of being fetched by the hosts themselves at the Taj entrance and taken out to the Dhow with Singhi playing Captain was magic. Time, that constituent of our lives that never stands still, was held hostage by a starry, starry night with an indulgent Id moon luring us further out to sea, as if to hold us captive to her bounty till time immemorial. We feasted on hot and cold hors d’oeuvre, drank bubbly like champagne spiritualists and revelled in the warmth of kinship.

Kindred souls enjoined for an evening of merriment. If indeed the clock had stopped, perhaps I could have done a Cinderella and made the brunch that Rathikant Basu, a dear friend, had on the Sunday to launch the Gujarati and Punjabi Tara. Alas, it also meant I missed out on the oh-so genteel Harsh Goenka’s Artists’ Camp held at his lush bungalow in Madh Island. A feverish brow and a spot of laryngitis took the spark out of Sunday, but I know for a fact that win perhaps I did on the swings that made Saturday night, but lost out on the roundabout of friendship that made for the Sabbath.

Lunch at the American School on Thursday was the first social sortie of the week, and thoroughly enjoyable too. I could wax lyrical on the finest school in Mumbai, indeed India, but then I am partisan. H.E. Mr David Good the Consul General of America and his wife Ila exude the warmth of humanity itself in their devotion to a cause. The American School has blossomed and bloomed under the able care of the Mr and Mrs Good, the Principal Mr Bradford, Mr Mains, the thoroughly professional team of staff and the ingenious enthusiasm of the parents. An educational system that is co-dependent on all its constituents in an environment of superlative definition brings us back to the thread, an India Today with two score and more schools like this one, to bring us par for the course in education this Millennium.

 

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